Basket
0 Items
Sunday 30 August 2026 Trinity 13, Twenty-second in Ordinary Time, Proper 17
Are you listening?
Jeremiah 15:15-21; Romans 12: 9-end; Matthew 16: 21-end
Context: A Sunday morning Eucharist in an Anglo-Catholic inclusive urban community church with a congregation of mixed experiences
Aim: To encourage people to listen for God in every moment of their lives
MUSICAL DYNAMICS
In music, dynamics are the way we show volume: the loud, the soft, and the places in between. ‘Forte’ means loud, ‘piano’ means quiet, and strangely for the in-between you can either be ‘mezzo forte’ (moderately loud) or’ mezzo piano’ (moderately quiet), but you can’t just be mezzo – bang in the middle. I like this idea of music as something that is living, constantly moving and changing. It is not bland or medium; it is always heading towards or away
from something.
LISTENING TO GOD IN THE DIFFERENCES
When children are very young, they often get the difference between loud and quiet confused with the pitch of high and low tones. It is common for children to think that a loud noise is also a high noise, and it takes time for them to understand that these are different concepts. As with so many truths from children, it is a lesson we should learn in our worshipping lives. God speaks just as loudly in the highs of life as in the lows; the volume does not necessarily change, but how alert we are and how much we are listening to God does.
In our readings today, we have dynamics represented in the words from Jeremiah. The words ebb and flow, there is a high and a low. It is a rollercoaster of worship that veers between the writer telling of knowing God is with them in the best of times and in the worst of times. This is not just in juxtaposition – the writer does not just know God at the pinnacle of the high points and the very depth of the low points – but understands with surety that God is with them as a heartbeat woven into the fabric of life. In every moment, regardless of the emotion or the occasion, there is God.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus does not shy away from the bad things either. He knows that following God requires full surrender to the highs and the lows of life. Only having good moments is not promised, even (or perhaps especially) for the Son of God. Jesus admonishes Peter for his wishing for only good things as human folly, not divine wisdom. Rebuking him for his wish, he tells Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me.’ Living such a bland life is not in the Creator’s plan for Jesus, nor for us.
NO SUCH THING AS MEDIUM
Just as music is never a bland medium volume or pitch, so, despite our longing for our lives to be consistent, they are rarely a static medium. They move between the highs and lows. The times may be a crescendo from quiet to loud, but God is there beside us. The events may be getting quieter as we slow down, and yet again, there God is. I take heart in this.
God doesn’t want us to live bland lives, where everything is beige and comfortable. We are meant to experience everything – genuinely and with full feeling. As Paul writes in Romans 12, we live in our extremes. We hate what is evil, we love what is good. We rejoice, we suffer, but we also veer between the two. We persevere through it all because we can be sure that we can trust in the Lord. The beauty of this life that God has granted us is that we are privileged to live and feel it all, and listen to hear God, knowing that God is beside us in the depths of despair as much as the highs of joy.
Are you listening?
Welcome to The College of Preachers
To explore the website fully, please sign in or subscribe.
Non-subscribers can read up to three articles a month for free. (You will need to register.)
This is the last of your 1 free articles this month.
Subscribe today for the full range of resources from The College of Preachers, including Lectionary sermons for every Sunday, book reviews and more.
Issue 202: The Dynamics of Worship
